The Point
Choke Hold
Fate is My PimpNoir at the Bar
Loveless
Dirty Old Town
Cold Shot to the Heart
Beat to a Pulp Hardboiled
Dicked
Black Orchid Blues

The Fireball Award for Best Opening Line

“The Rhodesian smuggler pawed at the blade sticking out of his back.” – Pitch Dark by Steven Sidor
“Julie Lippman woke up early the day her boyfriend died.” – Hell & Gone by Duane Swierczynski
“I’d just flicked a spider off the desk, sighed and prepared to rise when the shadow of someone’s head and shoulders appeared on the floor like the edge of a jigsaw piece.” – Novahead by Steve Aylett
“It always goes down hard when a dead guy takes his first swing at me.” – Black Light by Melton, Dunstan & Romano
“Do the things you’ve done in the past add up to the person you are now?” – Choke Hold by Christa Faust“This is Detroit, so welcome to the jungle.” – In Nine Kinds of Pain by Leonard Fritz
“When I drove over to the night club, Leonard was sitting on the curb holding a bloody rag to his head.” – Hyenas by Joe R. Lansdale
“My apocalypse began without the fanfare you might expect.” – The Bastard Hand by Heath Lowrance
“They come in the abandoned hour of the night, moving through quiet arterial streets, empty intersections, past gated storefronts and darkened windows, homeless men curled into bus stop shelters, prostitutes walking the desolate concrete stretches.” – Untouchable by Scott O’Connor
“And I wake, gasping and flailing at the hooded shapes that recede swiftly with my sleep, the report of the gunshot ricocheting off my skull and out into the great hall of the Reading Room.” – The Dewey Decimal System by Nathan Larson

Brian is the non-fiction editor of Spinetingler magazine and one of the fiction editors of Snubnose Press. In addition to Spinetingler his work has appeared in Crimespree magazine and at BSC Review, Galleycat and the Mulholland Books website. He also heads the Spinetingler Award committee.

Glad I’m not a betting man. Only two of my votes matched with the category winners…

Congratulations to all, though. So much talent has been rightfully recognised. If you weren’t worthy of the win, you wouldn’t have been nominated. Great award, and I’ll second Nigel’s gratitude, Spinetingler.

Congratulations to all. The winners and nominees were a great cross-section of some of the best work out there today.

Gareth Price on May 2, 2012 at 8:29 am

Well done to all winners & nominees. Very, very tough competition this year that has highlighted the quality available to us lucky readers. Alan Heathcocks Volt is one that will now definitely be joining my TBR list. Cheers